Word Meanings - GIBSTAFF - Book Publishers vocabulary database

1. A staff to guage water, or to push a boat. 2. A staff formerly used in fighting beasts on the stage. Bailey.

Related words: (words related to GIBSTAFF)

• WATER-BEARER
  The constellation Aquarius.
• WATERWORT
  Any plant of the natural order Elatineæ, consisting of two genera , mostly small annual herbs growing in the edges of ponds. Some have a peppery or acrid taste.
• WATER SHREW
  Any one of several species of shrews having fringed feet and capable of swimming actively. The two common European species are the best known. The most common American water shrew, or marsh shrew , is rarely seen, owing to its nocturnal habits.
• WATER-TIGHT
  So tight as to retain, or not to admit, water; not leaky.
• WATER RAT
  The water vole. See under Vole. The muskrat. The beaver rat. See under Beaver. 2. A thief on the water; a pirate.
• WATER CRAKE
  The dipper. The spotted crake . See Illust. of Crake. The swamp hen, or crake, of Australia.
• BAILEY
  ballium bailey, OF. bail, baille, a palisade, baillier to inclose, 1. The outer wall of a feudal castle. 2. The space immediately within the outer wall of a castle or fortress. 3. A prison or court of justice; -- used in certain proper names; as,
• WATER DOG
  A dog accustomed to the water, or trained to retrieve waterfowl. Retrievers, waters spaniels, and Newfoundland dogs are so trained.
• WATER CLOCK
  An instrument or machine serving to measure time by the fall, or flow, of a certain quantity of water; a clepsydra.
• WATER SAIL
  A small sail sometimes set under a studding sail or under a driver boom, and reaching nearly to the water.
• WATERIE
  The pied wagtail; -- so called because it frequents ponds.
• WATER BALLAST
  Water confined in specially constructed compartments in a vessel's hold, to serve as ballast.
• WATER RAM
  An hydraulic ram.
• WATER LINE
  Any one of certain lines of a vessel, model, or plan, parallel with the surface of the water at various heights from the keel. Note: In a half-breadth plan, the water lines are outward curves showing the horizontal form of the ship at their several
• STAFFISH
  Stiff; harsh. Ascham.
• WATER LOCUST
  A thorny leguminous tree which grows in the swamps of the Mississippi valley.
• STAGERY
  Exhibition on the stage.
• WATERING
  a. & n. from Water, v. Watering call , a sound of trumpet or bugle summoning cavalry soldiers to assemble for the purpose of watering their horses. -- Watering cart, a sprinkling cart. See Water. -- Watering place. A place where water may be
• WATER PARSNIP
  Any plant of the aquatic umbelliferous genus Sium, poisonous herbs with pinnate or dissected leaves and small white flowers.
• WATERWORN
  Worn, smoothed, or polished by the action of water; as, waterworn stones.
• OVERLANGUAGED
  Employing too many words; diffuse. Lowell.
• BLACKWATER STATE
  Nebraska; -- a nickname alluding to the dark color of the water of its rivers, due to the presence of a black vegetable mold in the soil.